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Ghosts Appear and Fade Away
For All Nails #324: Ghosts Appear and Fade Away by Johnny Pez ---- :Executive Palace :Melbourne, New South Wales, Kingdom of Australia :26 December 1974 Myron Loy was not a happy man. He had been spending the Christmas holidays with his family at Cape Byron, FN1 enjoying the sun and the surf, when his lunch had been rudely interrupted by Vincent Mercator’s vitavised announcement that he had just set off a walloping great atomic bomb at Bali. A part of Loy had been hoping that the Mexican dictator was playing some sort of ghoulish prank, but radio reports from the kingdom’s Indonesian protectorate soon confirmed Mercator’s claims. The immediate death toll was thought to be over ten thousand, and that figure was expected to climb steeply over the next week. The RAN base at New Belfast had dispatched a gyropter within minutes, and three hours later Loy was back in the Executive Palace in Melbourne. It was now six in the evening, five hours since Mercator had set his bomb off, and Loy was trying to gather together his scattered cabinet ministers and respond to the staggering disaster at Bali. On top of everything else, it had only been three months since the Conservatives had won a majority in the last Grand Council elections, and they were all still getting themselves sorted out. Loy had been looking forward to spending the next five years cutting taxes, drawing down troop levels in India and Indo-China, and slow-walking the ARP’s ridiculous equal-rights legislation. Now he had an enormous humanitarian crisis to deal with, to say nothing of having to respond to Mercator’s astonishing demands. As for the former, Minister of War Arthur Antonelli, God bless him, lived right here in Melbourne, so it had taken him less than an hour to reach his ministry and set the wheels of the atomic attack response in motion. These days, the Ministry of War was always kept fully staffed, even during the Christmas holidays, so Antonelli had been able to issue the necessary instructions right away and see them carried out. The plans had been drawn up back in the ‘60s, when everyone’s main concern had been that Carl Salazar would make good on his threat to start dropping atom bombs on Australia in retaliation for a British attack on the German Empire. It was ironic in a horrible way that those plans would now be carried out in response to an attack on Salazar himself. Despite having only three months’ experience as head of the War Ministry, Antonelli had proved equal to the task of coordinating the response to the emergency. Even now units of His Australian Majesty’s armed forces were scrambling to deal with the crisis, airlifting medical teams from hospitals across the country to Bali to tally the dead and treat the injured. Until Loy himself had arrived at the capital, Antonelli had been running the government, locating and contacting other government ministers and senior civil servants, and fielding inquiries from the news media. As for the latter, now that a majority of the cabinet had been assembled here in the Executive Mansion they could finally work out a response to the Mexican madman’s ultimatum. Loy had a transcript of Mercator’s speech in front of him, and the lunatic had called out Australia by name: “The governments of Taiwan, the Canton Pact, the Philippines, and the Kingdoms of Australia and Scandinavia have forty-eight hours to expropriate all Kramer holdings and arrest all surviving Kramer leaders for later trial, under threat of similar annihilation.” “What are we going to do?” wondered Peter Dupree, the Minister of Labour. “I can tell you what we’re not going to do,” Loy answered. “We’re not going to allow some lunatic to dictate our actions. There are going to be no expropriations and no arrests.” “And suppose Mercator is serious about attacking us if we refuse?” Dupree persisted. “In that case,” Loy glared at his cabinet minister, “it will be up to our successors to re-evaluate government policy in light of new developments. But until Colonel Mercator can back up his threats with action, we will look to our own counsel and nobody else’s.” Loy swept the cabinet room with his gaze, taking in all the other men present. “I want to make it absolutely clear what is at stake here. What we do here in the next few hours will determine whether the kingdom of Australia will continue to function as a sovereign state within the United Empire, or whether we will surrender that sovereignty to a blustering madman. Is there anyone present who believes that the risk of annihilation justifies the forfeiture of that sovereignty?” Antonelli spoke up immediately. “Governor-General, I do not.” “Nor I,” said the Foreign Minister, Alvin Parsons. “Nor I.” “Nor I.” Within seconds, every man in the room, including Dupree, had echoed Parsons. “Very well,” said Loy. “I intend to release a statement within the hour condemning Colonel Mercator’s actions, and categorically refusing his demands. Mr. Parsons, please communicate our intentions to the other recipients of Colonel Mercator’s ultimatum. Any who wish to endorse our response are welcome to do so.” “Yes, Governor-General.” “What’s more,” Loy continued, “I intend to be here, in this building, at one o’clock Saturday afternoon to receive any response Colonel Mercator chooses to make.” “And I as well,” Antonelli added. “No, Mr. Antonelli,” Loy responded immediately. “If I’m wrong and Colonel Mercator does indeed intend to make good on his threat, I need a man in place to take charge of this country and lead it through its most terrible trial since the war. The events of this day have shown me that you are that man. When the time comes, I want you at the strategic command office in Darwin.” Antonelli paused for a moment, his face expressionless, before he finally nodded and said, “Very well, Governor-General.” Loy said, “Thank you, gentlemen. That will be all for now.” ---- Forward to FAN #325 (Australia/American War): Live From Melbourne. Forward to 26 December 1974: Bad News in Bogotá. Return to For All Nails. Category:American War Category:Australia